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Jane's AH-64D Longbow has quickly made its way into the realm of "flight sim classics" in a lot of peoples' books, but if the missions also give it a spot on your "top ten most notorious list," here are some tips to help ease your struggles. While the excellent tutorials in Longbow give you all the necessary information required to fly the AH-64D successfully, the instructor will only get you so far with regards to completing missions. In order to be really successful at Longbow, you need a little more information. This is where we can help.

Mission briefing

Of course, reading the mission briefing is very important. However, there is a lot of stuff presented in the briefing screen that, while interesting to some extent, isn't necessary to know to complete your mission. This leads to skimming over the material rather than reading it. I know I've been guilty of not reading every word, and sometimes it has gotten me into trouble. What you need to know is What, Who, and Where. First, note What your mission is. If you're only to fly recon, knowing this before hand will usually stop you from destroying things and failing the mission as a result. Second, know Who the players are. Know who you're escorting, or who you have to ID or destroy. Finally, use the map to go over Where the battle line is, and where the mission is to take place. After all, the likelihood of successfully completing a mission by attacking the wrong tank column are slim to none.

Mission planning

Essential waypoints can't be altered in Longbow, but you can add some of your own. This can be helpful if you have less than perfect directional orientation while in flight or need other visual cues for important positions. I'll get into exactly why you may want to add them next time, however at this stage, just note which waypoints contain the last known positions of the mission targets. This can be very useful for determining who are the bad guys. You can pretty much assume that any target near the strike zone will be the enemy. However, as always, when in doubt, check it out or use your wingie.

While configuring weapons and which chopper you'll fly isn't located on the mission planning screens, they both are very much a part of mission planning. Regarding weapons, which you take along really depends on your targets. If you have many soft targets, rockets can serve you well because they can get the job done and you can carry lots of them. If you have hard targets such as tanks, Hellfires are the weapon of choice. Always choose the radar guided AGM-114K's. There is no penalty for always using these since you can't run out of them. The advantage they have over their laser guided cousins are they can be ripple-fired at multiple targets. Lasers can only be locked on one at a time. You always have the choice to fly the AH-64A or AH-64D in every mission. Choose the "D" unless you're interested in historical accuracy in the historic missions. The manual in Longbow goes into the exact differences between the two, but generally, the "D" (Longbow) has the venerable FCR (Fire Control Radar), more digital displays and is basically much more capable than the "A" model.

Flying tips

If you're either a rank chopper novice or a veteran who fully understands and executes missions according to doctrine, your greatest enemy will be the ground. Let me explain. If you're a novice, you're very likely to crash into the ground before reaching your targets. On the other hand, if you're a knowledgeable vet and fly your missions properly, the enemy won't get a shot off at you. At this level, the ground again becomes your most potent foe. Other than practice flying, the only tip I can offer is fly slow. I know this goes against what you want to do – fly low and very fast, but besides being very difficult to do, that isn't the way the real guys do it. NOE (Nap Of the Earth) flying at very low altitudes is just about impossible at full tilt. Also, if you fly too fast, you limit your time to react if you suddenly happen to fly over a well hidden AAA unit.

The art of not being seen

While the AH-64 isn't considered a "stealth" aircraft, your greatest asset is the ability to get in, do your thing, and get out without being detected if flown properly. If the best defense is a good offense, with the AH-64 the best offense is not being seen. By avoiding detection, you can avoid all threats. After all, if the enemy can't see you, they can't shoot at you. The way to accomplish this is to fly low – very low. Flying below 70' during your ingress is usually fine, but flying under 40' AGL will allow you to go virtually undetected in most situations (flying 40' AGL on the top of a mountain won't do much for you). Of course, this is easier said than done. As we've just discussed, NOE flying below 40' AGL requires that you fly slowly (depending on the terrain 90 IAS or slower is comfortable for most – less at night). Other things you can do to increase your chances of becoming a lawn mower before reaching your objectives include, not flying down into the bottoms of every valley when flying NOE. As long as you're below the mountain tops located between you and the enemy, you're safe. You also do not need to fly your exact flight path depicted by your waypoints. If your flight path leads you over the top of a mountain, go around instead. Just re-establish your original flight path on the other side. It may take longer to reach your objective, but your chances of getting there alive increases dramatically.

Finding and selecting victims

Okay, that should read "targets" instead of "victims," but the AH-64D is such a lethal weapon that it almost seems un-fair (not that I'm complaining) to the enemy. Your targets are almost literally "sitting ducks!" Anyway, with such a capable killing machine at your disposal, it's often very tempting to shoot every enemy you run across. While this can gain you points, if you don't take out your assigned targets, you'll fail your mission. Furthermore, if you "waste" ammo on non-mission objective targets, you risk ending up short when you do reach your objective. Deciphering friendlies from the enemy is easy since your CP/G (Co-Pilot/Gunner) does this for you (use the key for enemy targets and key for friendlies). Now that you know who the enemy is, you have to choose who to shoot at first. The saying "so many targets, so little time" applies. Longbow presents a target rich environment – much more than you can kill with any weapons load, so you have to select targets based on immediate priorities – threats, mission targets, tanks, followed by others. Threats of course include enemy aircraft, AAA (Anti- Aircraft Artillery) and SAMs (Surface to Air Missiles), but also include radar installations. If you take out radar, the enemy will be blind, and if they can't see you, they can't shoot you. Also, I listed AAA first before SAMs. This is because if you fly low enough, SAMs won't be able to lock onto you, but AAA will still be able to get you. We'll discuss strategies some more next time, but this is the general idea.

Figuring out which targets are AAA and which are tanks can be difficult using TADS (Target Acquisition and Designation Sight) at long distances and dangerous if you need to close in to visually ID every target. If you have trouble ID'ing targets using the standard methods and don't want to "cheat" by pressing U and toggling the Upfront Display, you need to learn the symbology represented on the TSD and FCR (Tactical Situation Display and Fire Control Radar). There are no other shortcuts.

If you have trouble locating ground based threats (and why wouldn't you since the enemy doesn't want to be seen either) come to a hover in a safe spot, add collective and climb straight up. If there are any SAMs, AAA or radar sites nearby, they'll light up your ASE (Aircraft Survivability Equipment) when you climb high enough. Note where the installations are and quickly reduce collective and drop back down into your safe spot before they start shooting at you. Now go out and get 'em! More next time.

mmorphon00@yahoo.com

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Page Updated Mon Feb 28, 2000 8:25pm EST